This isn’t as easy as it seems. Apparently it’s not uncommon to register to vote in a closed primary like PA for the opposite party you prefer in order to dilute the vote for the candidate you don’t like by voting for the person running against them in the party. So he may be a “registered republican voter”, but that may be as a minor act of sabotage rather than his real politics.
E: what’s up with the rebuttals? “Yeah it happens but not really”? So it happens, but it couldn’t with this guy? If I’m wrong and he’s actually a Republican, great! But downvoting the possibility he registered the opposite of his beliefs isn’t gonna make it disappear.
That is almost entirely a myth. Yes, there are ‘cross over votes’ in states that don’t have open primaries but facilitate party enrollment, but those cross over voters are almost always ‘independent’ voters who enroll and then unenroll and are not doing anything other than voting for the candidate of their choice in the primary that candidate is running in. So called ‘strategic voting’, as far as I know, has never made any difference in any presidential primary, but go ahead and bring up the bodies.
Its for state level races where you’re in one of the 40+ states where it’s a forgone conclusion what party wins the general.
So some people give up their presidential primary vote, to vote in the state level primaries for the party virtually guaranteed to win their state, then vote for their preferred party in the general even if their candidate won the primary for the other party
You might not think it’s common, but it’s the only way a lot of people’s votes have any actual effect, so lots of people do it
This isn’t as easy as it seems. Apparently it’s not uncommon to register to vote in a closed primary like PA for the opposite party you prefer in order to dilute the vote for the candidate you don’t like by voting for the person running against them in the party. So he may be a “registered republican voter”, but that may be as a minor act of sabotage rather than his real politics.
E: what’s up with the rebuttals? “Yeah it happens but not really”? So it happens, but it couldn’t with this guy? If I’m wrong and he’s actually a Republican, great! But downvoting the possibility he registered the opposite of his beliefs isn’t gonna make it disappear.
That is almost entirely a myth. Yes, there are ‘cross over votes’ in states that don’t have open primaries but facilitate party enrollment, but those cross over voters are almost always ‘independent’ voters who enroll and then unenroll and are not doing anything other than voting for the candidate of their choice in the primary that candidate is running in. So called ‘strategic voting’, as far as I know, has never made any difference in any presidential primary, but go ahead and bring up the bodies.
It’s not for presidential races.
Its for state level races where you’re in one of the 40+ states where it’s a forgone conclusion what party wins the general.
So some people give up their presidential primary vote, to vote in the state level primaries for the party virtually guaranteed to win their state, then vote for their preferred party in the general even if their candidate won the primary for the other party
You might not think it’s common, but it’s the only way a lot of people’s votes have any actual effect, so lots of people do it